JSC: Chapter 1 – Other Girls Played With Dolls

A microfiber line dropped from the ceiling of Count Sisco’s private museum. A small girl dropped silently along the line and gingerly touched the ground. Jane Smith was barely five feet tall with a fit slender body. She was wearing a black leotard with black leggings and a form-fitting shirt zipped over it. There was no extra fabric, not even a fold or unsightly seam. Her light brown hair was held back in a simple ponytail that kept her slightly longer than shoulder length hair under control.

She looked up at the hole that she had expertly cut in the duraglass that served as a skylight. A slight shimmer could be seen as her ship was hovering along the forcefield that protected the roof. It was designed to take care of such simple obstacles. Its stealth technology should allow it to remain undetected until the sun came up and it would be visible to the naked eye. She knew that she had dropped into the most secure part of the Count’s entire compound.

Her specially designed shoes allowed her to cross the room at a medium jog without making a sound or tripping any pressure sensors. The mass canceling soles were able to offset her entire existence due in no small part to the fact that she was so small to begin with. Just another reason why this was her only mission.

She stepped up to the glass case containing Sisco’s pride and joy. It was the solid Caspercian ruby crown that he claimed gave him the right to rule this system once the inhabitants were brought out of cryostasis. They would be coming out in a little over six months, after eight hundred years of dormancy. Many of the Guardians were unhappy with the fact that Sisco would be the one to rule but unless he died before they were revived, he would become the High Casper.

Jane made short work of the electronic security that would alert the Count to her activities. She then hooked in a small device and set the timer to 15 minutes. She made sure here wrist cronodisplay matched the time before starting the countdown. She then took out small cylinder and used it to produce a purple laser beam. She cut through the duraglass in short order and used a small pyramid-shaped device to pull the slab away. She placed it on top of the case where there were no pressure sensors. After swiftly replacing the tools, Jane grabbed the crown and thrust her arm through its center hole. As she moved away from the case she lifted it onto her shoulder.

She bounded silently up the stairs and ran along the balcony to the ornate double doors that led to the residence. A few moments later the door was unlocked and slid open. She slipped through and made her way down the hallway. Two sets of stairs and three hallways later she walked up to a big set of doors. These looked both more ornate and more secure than the others in the palace. She glanced at her wrist and the holographic display read eight minutes. She attached her headpiece that placed a HUD interface over one eye as well as provide her with a two-way audio interface. She linked the flat black panel attached to her left arm to the door controls. Her HUD’s holograms assaulted her with security data and she worked her right hand swiftly over the blank panel. To anyone but her she was making random movements; however, through the eyepiece she was moving in a beautiful ballet through the system’s safeguards. Forty-five seconds later the door made a slight chime and slid open. She disconnected from the interface and entered the room.

The Count’s bed chamber was as any would expect of someone of his status. The large bed was raised almost to the ceiling to reveal the cryostasis chamber that was stored under it. The count look lifeless as he laid in stasis. When she was about six feet from the chamber she slid the crown off of her tiny shoulder and placed it carefully on the ground. She placed a slip of parchment in the center of it and stepped forward. As she approached the interface for the chamber she could see that it was set to revive him in the morning. The Count liked to be revived often to check the state of affairs. This caused him to secretly age over the years of the cold sleep. She interfaced with it and changed the time settings to cause him to revive immediately. She overrode part of the process to only unfreeze him from the waist up and executed the program.

The time now read four minutes. The chamber took half that time to open and the count looked at his crown, confused.  He tried to step toward it but fell, the crown just out of his reach. He then looked up at Jane. “Who are you? What is a child doing here?” Sisco was laying on the floor shivering, with half of his body still frozen.

“The order sends it regards.” She said as she started to cross to the large picture window. She touched a few spots on her wrist and turned back to him. “And I’m no child.” She added with a scowl as she swung the molecular destabilizer from its place at the small of her back. She pointed it at his head with cold and precise purpose.

“Who are you?” He asked again, his voice an incredulous whisper.

“I’m Jane Smith and I have trained for this moment for the last twenty years. My life was began to end yours. You have always been my destiny.” She finished as she pulled the trigger of the long-barreled weapon. The Sisco seemed to expand slightly when the purple bolt hit him and then shrank as he turned to dust. The alarms went off as the timer hit zero. Moments later Jane’s ship shattered the glass of the large picture window with a pulse and it backed itself up to the ledge.

The door flew open as Lucas, the Count’s nephew and servant, ran in. He looked at the dust in horror and walked toward it slowly. He knelt at the crown and looked at the note. The boy looked a lot like the Count did when he went into stasis that first time. The people wouldn’t know the difference. He seemed very confused by what he was reading and he finally noticed Jane still standing there. He was also privy to almost all the Count’s activities being the only one to attend to him in the last eight centuries. This made him the perfect choice.

“You’re free now. Long live his lordship, High Casper Sisco.” Jane said to him softly. She was at a loss because the boy wasn’t supposed to wake this quickly. It was never intended that she would have to look him in the eye. She knew that they were the same age but she couldn’t help but notice how young he seemed.

He looked at her incredulously. “I’m to be…but how? They’ll know!”

“They will never know. The order will support you. They will send operatives to advise you. All of the computers think that your BioDats are him.”

He looked at her fearfully as the guards that had been awoken for the first time in eight hundred years were heard down the hall. “Are you going to stay?”

“No. You fought me off with this.” She said as she fired a standard palace weapon at the wall around the window and threw him the small hand disruptor.

“You can’t just leave me to do this alone! This is all your doing.” He accused in a small voice.

The footsteps sounded very close.

She was silent for a moment, then she met his eyes. “I will be there when you need my service, my lord.” She was supposed to be done after this mission but she knew in that instant that she could never be done. She could never completely walk away.

She winked at Lucas and turned to run onto her ship as Lucas stared at her fleeing figure.

She sped off as the guards entered the room and fired at her tail. The guard captain approached Lucas to check on who, he assumed, was his sire. All the while Lucas held the crumpled parchment tightly in his hand. Another guard presented him with his crown which Lucas just stared at. He then looked at the guard captain and said, “Leave me. I have much to prepare for.”

Second Draft: Updated July 1st, 2012